Google’s November Breaking Pixel Cameras: The Five-Minute Fix
Pixel 10 and Pixel 11 owners report black camera screens and error messages after installing Google's November update. Users on Google's Support forum say a full shutdown of about five minutes fixes it for some, while a factory reset did not. Google has not yet commented.
Some Pixel 10 and Pixel 11 owners say their phone cameras stopped working after they installed Google's November update, in what looks like Google's November breaking Pixel bug. Users report black camera previews, error messages and dead front and rear cameras.
One workaround is circulating. Fully powering the phone off for about five minutes appears to restore the cameras for some people.
What users are seeing
Reports have appeared on Reddit and Google's Support forum. They point only to Pixel 10 and Pixel 11 series phones, with no complaints so far from owners of older models.
For some, the Pixel Camera app shows the message "Something went wrong. Close and open the Camera app again." For others, the app opens normally but shows only a black screen.
Third-party camera apps fail in the same way, which suggests the fault is not limited to Google's own Camera app.
One user who had just moved from an iPhone 17 to a Pixel 11 listed the build as CP4A.261105.040.D1 and wrote that the front and rear cameras were not working. "This is… unbelievable," the user wrote.
What does not work
A plain restart did not fix the problem, users say. Clearing the app's cache and data, uninstalling app updates and running the phone in Safe Mode also failed to help, according to other owners.
One user went as far as a factory reset. It did not fix the issue either, and the user wrote that it "might be the one thing that makes me drop Google."
The five-minute fix
What does seem to work is a complete shutdown. Owners should power the phone down, leave it off for roughly five minutes, then switch it back on.
The advice came from Diamond and Gold product experts on Google's Support forum, and several users say it worked for them. It is not a universal cure, and the cause of the fault has not been established.
The camera problem follows earlier complaints about wireless charging on Pixel phones after the same update. Some Pixel 10 owners say wireless charging now drains their battery instead of filling it.
Android Authority said it has asked Google for comment on the camera issue. Google had not responded when the report was published on November 13, 2026.
